full fat or semi skimmed ?

[momov2]

Hi all , wandering if anyone can answer this question for me , at what age is it ok to switch from full fat milk to semi skimmed ? my daughters are age 2 and 3 and drink 2-3 cups of full fat milk a day, is this 2 much ? should i switch to semi skimmed ? any advice would be helpful , thanks xx

Under 5s should have full fat I believe.

thanks x

The advice is, iirc, that you should not switch to semi skimmed until your child is 2.

BUT that does not mean that you SHOULD switch once they are. Children need fat. If your girls are active, normal weight etc keep them on full fat milk. It will do them no harm at all, might do them some good (lots of energy, good for brain development etc) and is only 4% fat in any event. If you turn that around, that means full fat milk is 96% fat free. That's practically a diet food!

I thought semi skimmed was ok from 2.

What Haliborange said. Whole foods are always preferable to processed foods IMHO.

Govt advice is switch at 2 to semi-skimmed, at 5 to skimmed.
www.nhs.uk/Planners/birthtofive/Pages/Drinksandcups.aspx
I did with ds1 (now 4), but he is so outrageously skinny (and still drinks a lot of milk, as well as eating a varied and good quantity diet), that I went back to full fat for him. DD2 (18m) is still on full fat, but I don't stress about it if all I've got is semi
(and when they're ill/ not eating, I've been known to add double cream to their bedtime milk to stoke them up....)

Well said Haliborange ! could not agree more with your post, people hear the words Full Fat and got a little strange I think. Please don't see that it is only 4% fat ! if it said 96% fat free it would be selling like hot cakes !

Gah, for some reason whole milk is utterly demonised in the UK. I mean, if kids get fat it's because they sit in front of the TV eating biscuits etc, not because of a bit of creamy milk.

Wearymum - that says it's ok to switch from full fat after a certain age but it doesn't say that you should move to skimmed/semi-skimmed. I suspect they give this advice because people were giving their small kids skimmed milk as it was easier than buying more than one kind. The advice is to discourage switching too early, not to recommend changing thereafter IYSWIM.

thankyou all your advice is much appreciated :D x